True for me, but not true for you, in quotes, moral relativism and public life. So that's the topic.

This talk is about relativism, with a special focus on moral relativism. First, I'm going to try to

explain what relativism is. Second, I'm going to make some remarks concerning what people are relativists about.

Third, I'll say a lot of things about moral relativism. And fourth, I'll make a brief remark

about interfering with other people's decisions, which may not seem relevant yet, but you'll see.

And then I'll be done.

So, introductory remarks about relativism.

Relativism, roughly speaking, is the idea that there is not an absolute truth

that's the same for everyone, but instead something is true for one person, but maybe not

for another person. So, for example, someone might say, maybe it's true for you that sex

should be reserved for marriage, but it's not true for me. Or for another example, someone

might say, maybe it's true for you that there is no God, but for me. Or for another example, someone might say, maybe it's true for you that there is no God,

but for me, there is a God. Now, right away, we have to be careful not to be tripped up by language.

Sometimes in contemporary English, talking like that is just a way of expressing the fact

that people don't agree.

So someone might say something like this.

For the Greek philosopher Plato, humans have a soul that survives death, but for the English philosopher

Thomas Hobbes, there is no soul. And all they would mean

is this. Plato believes that humans have a soul that survives death. Hobbs believes that

humans have no soul. So if they said that, they would not actually be asserting that one thing

was true for Hobbs and a different thing was true

for Plato. They could say all of that while thinking that Plato was right and that Hobbs

...